Honda had been building automobiles for only a few years when it moved smartly into the big leagues: Formula 1. Soichiro Honda's F1 efforts began in 1961, the year his motorcycles started claiming their Grand Prix wins, and so it wasn't surprising that the thinking used for the 2-wheel machines was applied to the GP automobile. With a 250-cc twin as a starting point, Honda created a twincam 1.5-liter V-12 with 230 bhp at 11,500 rpm. The 48-valve engine was slung sideways behind the cockpit, its 60-degree vee between cylinder banks helping smoothness and to keep the wheelbase at a reasonable length.

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As Ferrari still does today, Honda engineered everything on the F1 car, the multiplate clutch, the 5-speed gearbox, even the chassis and body.

American Ronnie Bucknum was enlisted to drive the RA 271 in 1964, but for 1965 and the RA 272, Honda added Richie Ginther, who was as famed for his car development skills as his race driving. The team struggled as it sorted out the complicated RA 272, but in the final race of the year—and the last for the early 1960s 1.5-liter F1 cars—Ginther won, with Bucknum finishing 5th. Honda was evidently strong on the high-altitude Mexico City circuit.

While at Honda's Twin Ring Motegi circuit for the IndyCar race, Dario Franchitti was able to sample Ginther's winning car. Dario reports:

Honda's RA 272 probably has the best sound of any car I've driven or heard, and that's saying a lot. That's special. The transversely mounted engine has those tiny trumpets pointing at your head, so when we warmed up the car and I wasn't wearing any earplugs or a helmet, it was an amazing sensation...what a beautiful noise, like a little screaming sewing machine.

One of the biggest surprises to me is the fact that the car is so small. When we put it next to the current Target Indy car, it was absolutely dwarfed. The RA 272 looks almost Formula Ford size.

When I first tried to get into the Honda with its standard seat, there was just no way for me to even think about fitting in it. We took the seat out and put in just a thin piece of foam padding on the seatback and bottom of the car. Still, my knees were hard against the bulkhead and the bottom of the fuel tank. I was told that when I got in the car, it looked as if I was putting on a pair of pants, and, when in, I was sticking up a ways out of it, which was typical for the time.

I was fine with the laying-down driving position. We do that in Indy cars. From that point of view the seat position was normal, but in the Honda my elbows really had nowhere to go. I was shocked at how small it is inside, especially when you're trying to change gears. Compared to the 1962 Lotus 25 I drove up the hill at Goodwood, this was an even tighter fit. All the cars of that era promote that straight arm driving style because there's nowhere else for your elbows to go. The fuel tanks take up all the space and you have to drive with your arms out straight.

On the track, the Honda drives like a motorbike, the engine pulls like a motorbike's and the gearbox is precise like a motorbike's. Someone mentioned you could understand how motorcycle riders like John Surtees were so good in this period. Unlike today's F1 cars, these little 1.5-liter Grand Prix cars were a lot closer in fit, size and the way they felt to competition motorcycles.

It's a very precise car to drive quickly. The Honda understeers a bit and driving it fast is all about carrying your speed. There's not a lot of torque out of a corner and you have to work to keep the speed up and use the revs. They told me beforehand to rev it between 7000 and 10,000 rpm, and they were happy with me revving it higher rather than lower, which the V-12 doesn't like.

The gearbox is a work of art...such a precise little device, though, again, difficult to use because I couldn't get my arm back to where I could manage it easily.

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My current Target car (Honda engine, Dallara chassis) has so much downforce and such wide tires compared to the Honda's, and yet there isn't that much difference in your approach to driving. You're trying to get the car onto the edge of grip level or slightly below that (or, at times, above it). You've got to be smooth when you're driving either car, it's just that with the Indy car's downforce level, the grip from the tires and the modern suspension, the forces are much greater, the cornering speeds higher. So it's the same basic thing you're doing behind the wheel, but with completely different feedback from the car.

I would have loved to have had a go in one of these cars at the time. Ginther's win was the last ever for these 1.5-liter Grand Prix cars and it must have been a big challenge for the guys to move up to the 3.0-liter cars in the 1966 season, requiring a different skill set. Being 1965, Jimmy Clark would have driven a car similar to this in F1 and then gone to Indianapolis and jumped into the 4-cam Ford Lotus 38...that must have been one hell of a step up. Drivers were very versatile in that day.

And brave. The Honda has some 200 liters (52.8 gallons) of fuel so it's something of a flying gas tank. I said it before with the Lotus 38; these drivers were very brave. This car does have fuel bag tanks, so I guess it was ahead of its time.

When I got in the Honda I also thought, no seatbelts? Well, off we go. But you can see why drivers back then were reputed to say that in an accident they wanted to get away from the car as quickly as possible.

To modern eyes, I think the F1 cars of this era look fragile because they're just so small and yet the Honda didn't feel that way to me. I think the Lotus felt a little more fragile, while the Honda seemed stronger.

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One of the things that always feels fragile on these cars is the gearbox, although the Honda's seemed fairly robust, more like a modern car gearbox, a more meaty feel to it...not so featherweight. The engine felt a little fragile, I must admit, perhaps because it has such a narrow powerband and you have to really rev it to keep it in that sweet spot. To me that seems to mean you had to worry about it. But none of the rest of the car, like the chassis and the brakes, felt in any way fragile.

Mind you, in a car as historically significant as this Honda, you don't want to be taking any chances. The guys from the museum who ran it were unbelievably professional in every way and it was great to see how well they look after their rolling exhibits.

When I consider the RA 272, it's what Honda is all about and what driving for Honda has been all about. I've driven for them since 1998 and all of my 30 wins have been with Honda engines [including two Indianapolis 500 victories and three IndyCar series titles]. They're always pushing the boundaries of technology, trying something new, and the RA 272 with its 1.5-liter transverse V-12 really shows that outside-the-box thinking.

One funny thing happened at Motegi. As usual with all IndyCar drivers, everybody was very focused on what they were doing for the race weekend. And yet a lot of the drivers came out to listen to and watch the RA 272. I got several texts like, "you lucky sod" and that sort of thing. You could see the old Honda struck a chord with all the IndyCar drivers, which is not always the way it is.